Chamber and committees

On the back of what has been said, the bill sets out principles and directions for inspections in relation to the quality of education provision, the assistance that is required in schools and so on. How deeply should those principles be set? Should future chief inspectors have a degree of decision-making power in that regard?

Thank you. That is really helpful.

It is quite early days, in some ways, for some of the elements that are going into the bill, but they are quite wide powers and policy development has a long way to go yet. What is the Scottish Government doing to ensure that the legislation is clear, and how are you allowing for proper parliamentary scrutiny of the bill?

Okay. I hope that you do not mind a wee bit of specificity on how that will affect some people. Scottish Land & Estates stated in its correspondence with the committee that

“These powers create unnecessary uncertainty that would have a detrimental impact on land markets”

and that

“Making law but reserving the right to change it at any time is unsettling for businesses and unhelpful when businesses want to plan for the long term.”

Do you have a response to that view? Do you accept that the lack of specificity in the bill leaves unclear the future operation of the law to those who will be affected by it?

You might have just covered a bit of this next question, minister. In respect of a number of the powers in the bill, the committee asked why they were not more narrowly drafted—I think that that was just addressed—and greater detail provided. You responded that doing so has not been possible and that the circumstances in which those powers might be used are not yet clear and will depend on the operation of the bill once it is enacted.

The committee understands the need for some in-built flexibility, but, if you are unable to identify the circumstances in which those powers might be used, why do you consider that it is appropriate to have those powers at all?

Thanks. You have stated that land reform is

“a process, rather than an event”.

What is your response to the view that it might be better to make any future changes only as the picture becomes clearer and to introduce them in a future bill, allowing for further parliamentary scrutiny at that point?

Thank you very much for that.

It is only natural for colleges and universities to want to maintain their independent, unique positions that have developed over the years and their right to make their own decisions with the money that is allocated. However, given the difficulties for financial sustainability that might arise, has an assessment been made of the potential for shared services and synergies between colleges and universities, even up to the point of mergers? A situation involving mergers seems unlikely, but you never know.

That is helpful—thank you.

If colleges—maybe not universities—came forward to say that they would like to share services but had run into difficulties around VAT, for example, could the Scottish Government help them to get around some of the difficulties?